Uploading pictures to a photo sharing website is very easy, whether it’s a single pic or an entire gallery, thanks to user-friendly image uploaders, and the services that have free mobile apps allow you to share your photos on the go, directly from your smart phone or tablet.

But before you upload anything or click the “share” button, please keep in mind a few basic things.

• Image quality. Yes, I have some photos on my blog, especially in the early posts, that aren’t that great. An inexplicably blurry cupcake comes to mind. But you should try to take good pictures with decent lighting. There’s only so much any photo editor can correct.
• Setting. This applies to photos of anything, but I hate to see a gorgeously decorated cake surrounded by used piping bags and dirty spatulas. Find a nice clean surface to put your cake on, away from a messy background.
• To crop, or not to crop? Sometimes cropping is necessary if you have to work with certain dimensions or if there are elements of the photo you want to leave out (like a dirty spatula off to the side, an angry relative, or something). But keep in mind this could make your photo a non-standard size.
• Copyright. The easiest way to avoid getting into any trouble here is to only upload and post a photo if you took it. Some services allow users to share pictures other people posted, and this is allowed with credit given to the source. But don’t post anybody else’s pictures as your own.

Share, share, share!

Okay, so you have a slew of pictures you’re ready to share with the world! Assuming you’ve already posted them on your Facebook page, if you have one, let’s take a look at a few other photo sharing websites.

• Pinterest is a great place to share pictures, and the mobile app is very easy to use. You upload your images by posting them to different “pinboards” you create based on how you want them categorized. Other users can follow you and might “repin” your pictures to their own boards, which broadens your exposure.
• Tumblr, which is really more of a blogging platform, also has a great app that makes sharing pictures from your mobile device easy and quick. The only downside is there isn’t a way to edit the photos, so be sure they’re how you want them before you post. Similar to Pinterest, other Tumblr users can follow you and share (“reblog”) your posts.
• Instagram is a photo sharing service driven by a mobile app. It’s owned by Facebook now, and you can configure it so that any pictures you post will also be shared on other social media services. It has become very popular.
• Google+ is a general social networking service and media platform, but like Facebook it allows you to share pictures via your profile page.

There are plenty of other online photo sharing websites, like ImageShack, SmugMug, PictureTrail, etc. but I haven’t used them.

When sharing isn’t enough: Online image hosting and editing services.

I have my cake blog pictures in the media library here on my website, but I also upload them to free online image hosting services. This way, I can share and access them no matter which device I’m using. Plus, my Chromebook has very little hard drive space, so I can’t store many image files on it. Even if I had the space, there’s no photo editor.

Storing your pictures in more than one place is a good idea whether you embrace cloud computing or not. Not only will they be recoverable if something ever happens to your hard drive, but if one service goes down, gets hacked, or whatever, you’ll still be able to access them on another.

Out of the many available free image hosting and editing services, I’ve personally only used Photobucket, Flickr, and Picasa Web Albums. Like choosing a blogging platform, you’ll probably want to spend some time trying a few to see which one(s) best meet your needs. Just keep in mind that in order to enjoy free services you’ll likely have to endure some ads, unless you upgrade to a pro account or their paid services. That’s how these websites support themselves.

This is one of the downsides to using Photobucket. I don’t mind the sidebar banners, but there are times I wish the header ads weren’t there, and I HATE that a video ad plays while pictures upload because I don’t always remember to mute the sound. Flickr also uses ads, but they’re much less obtrusive.

I’ve used Photobucket for a while, and and I’ve stuck with it since so many of my pictures are there, but they’ve recently made some changes I don’t like. As of the latest update, navigating the site and finding my pictures has become cumbersome, the site is still slow, and the photo editor has less features.

Also, the Photobucket iPhone app isn’t very good. I installed it despite the bad reviews and low rating because I would love to upload my photos directly from my phone. That would streamline everything, IF I could ever get it to work. I have yet to successfully upload a picture to my Photobucket account with it. Either there’s a network error and it can’t even connect, or it won’t call up the pictures from my iPhone, or the uploads just fail for some reason. Yet, the obnoxious bottom banner ads always seem to load with no problem. I’m fed up trying to fool with it, honestly.

Flickr is another option, and if you already use Yahoo email or other services, then you can register for a free Flickr account with your open Yahoo login. Years ago that’s where I posted my Cake Wrecks submissions, but I haven’t been very active over there in a while. I might start using it more since their iPhone app is really good–it works well and is free, which is really all it takes to make me happy. Many talented photographers are on Flickr, so it’s a great place to see some incredible pictures, and there’s also social networking/community aspect to it as a whole.

Picasa Web Albums is a service attached to Google, so if you have (or start) your blog on Blogger that’s where your uploaded pictures are hosted. If you’re on Google+, then you can access the photos from there, and if you’re using Blogger then you already have a Google account, so there’s no reason to not be on Google+. There’s also Picasa software for Windows and Mac users, but I can’t download it because I’m on a Chromebook.

As for photo editing…

Flickr and Photobucket have very similar photo editors, and they work fine for some things, but now that I’ve learned how to use Pixlr, I like it best for editing pictures and making collages. I’ve heard it’s similar to Photoshop, but since I’ve never used Photoshop I wouldn’t know.

The good news is that Pixlr works with any photo hosting service thanks to the “add image URL as layer” feature, or you can add a picture straight from your computer. You can then save the edited image back to your computer hard drive, Flickr account, Picasa album, or Facebook.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but more of an overview of services I have personal experience using. If there’s another free image hosting/editing service you like, please leave a comment telling us about it.

I think events were scheduled in the actual pavilion later, but we got there before much was happening other than a sound system playing music. Vendor booths were outside on the lawn, though, and most of the surrounding shops participated in a scavenger hunt.

This was a brilliant idea. You had to visit each shop to get your card stamped in order to be entered in the drawing for a really nice gift basket, so I hope these small businesses saw an increase in foot traffic.

If nothing else, at least I now know about them. Before today, I had no idea there was a local specialty herb and tea store, or a philanthropic boutique called 1907 Apparel that donates 7% of its profits to charity while also selling products that support causes.

In order to get your card stamped at that shop, you had to name one of the charity vendors. I picked Freedom’s Promise. I was also impressed by the elegantly decorated treats in a pet boutique selling all kinds of novelty clothing and accessories.

My kids were happy thanks to the presence of Loco Donuts. Apparently these are like the best doughnuts ever, but since they didn’t have any of their gluten-free offerings with them on the truck today, I’ll just have to wait and find out for myself another time. That’s okay, though, because there was plenty of other stuff for me to spend money on.

Like Thistle Farms soy candles and body butter, yes please! I also bought a hibiscus beeswax candle from RuBee’s Candles, and a bar of Honey Almond goat milk soap from Udder Chaos Farm.

I very nearly bought some Lady Anti-Smellum deodorant because it’s lavender, and really, how could I possibly resist something with such an awesome name?!

But then I noticed the $8 price tag and settled for a bar of Friends in Aloe Places soap, which I had actually already bought. Both products are from Music City Suds, and if the soap is half as good as the marketing genius behind it, I’ll be happy.

On the way home, partially in a effort to counteract the affects of the Hungry Lumberjack Donut Sundaes, but mostly because I was hungry and thirsty by this point and wanted a smoothie, we stopped at Nine Fruits. I love Nine Fruits.

How was your Saturday?

Whether you decided to have a website or not, setting up a Facebook page for your business is a great way to gain exposure for your business. Even if you personally are hesitant about embracing technology and social media, in order for your business to grow you need to find customers, and the next wave of them are likely to be tech-savvy. They search online for their needs, and businesses without an internet presence will suffer.

At the very least, set up a Facebook page for your business. Encourage friends and customers to “like” your Facebook page, and there you can upload photos, posts updates, share links, offer discounts, etc. with the page followers.

How to set up a Facebook page (assuming you already have a Facebook account):

• Sign in to Facebook and go to: https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php
• Select the type of page, Local Business or Place
• Choose the relevant category
• Fill in the rest of the information
• Check the box accepting the terms and legal stuff
• Click on the “Get Started” button
• Follow the Facebook prompts to customize

What to include (or not) on your Facebook page:

• General business information: name, products/services offered, operating hours, contact information (phone, email, website link, etc.)
• More specific business information: backstory, “about us” section, specialty services, photo galleries, upcoming promotions, etc.
• Address? Please note that if you list an address for your business, then users will be able to see and check in to your page using Facebook Places. You may not want that if you’re operating from your home.

Ideas for building your page’s audience:

• Invite your friends and customers to like the page and leave comments/testimonials on the page’s wall.
• Offer customers a discount on their next order for liking the Facebook page.
• Encourage activity on your page’s wall by asking a question for your followers to answer.
• Don’t count on people to find you. Once your page is set up, share it with your Facebook friends.
• Try to make it as easy as possible for people to “like” your page: include the page URL on your business cards, link to it from your website, add your Facebook page link to your email signature, etc.

More tips:

• Use your the name of your business for the Facebook page so friends can easily find you
• You may not get your first choice when it comes to setting up your Facebook page URL. Try to stick with something that’s as close to your business name while still being easy to remember.
• Pay attention to how your page permissions are set up. Make sure your settings allow wall posts if you ask for audience participation, for example.
• Also note the page “insights” stats. You can see how many of the page followers viewed and/or shared your posts. This helps you understand the type of content that is likely to get likes and comments.
• Think of your Facebook page as a central place to share ideas, current projects, etc. as well as gain exposure as your friends and followers share posts from your page.

If you have a website or blog, definitely link to it from your Facebook page and vice versa. There are social media management services that will automatically post updates to your Facebook page, so every time you publish a new blog post your Facebook followers will be notified. You can also generate a “like box” or badge linking to your Facebook page to display on your website, encouraging visitors to also connect with you there.

I hope this has been helpful. If you have any questions or would like to add further information and tips, please do so in the comments section. The next post in this series will cover the basics of photo editing and hosting. If the purpose of blogging is to share your work, with cakes and food that always involves pictures.

Good blogging practices are good blogging practices, regardless of your niche topic. But I’m going on the assumption that since you’re here instead of visiting a more general how-to-blog website like Copyblogger, that cakes are your thing. Whether you’re just getting started making cakes for people, already have a thriving customer base, or just want a way to showcase your cake decorating hobby, starting a website and incorporating social media is not difficult, and it’s a fantastic way to promote your talents.

Yes, it may seem overwhelming at first, and there will be a learning curve involved, but you don’t have to pay somebody loads of money to get it set up for you. There are plenty of free hosting services that allow domain redirects, so you can still have a custom URL without worrying about hosting. This is the route most people start off with, and that’s how I blogged for several years, so this post will outline how to set up your website using one of the more popular free blogging services with a custom domain redirect.

Before you do anything, come up with a name for your business/website/blog. This is where I went wrong back in 2008. I put no thought whatsoever in my blog name because at the time it was just a way for me to post my Wilton Method cake decorating class schedule in a central place where I could refer potential students. I don’t have any screen shots of what it used to look like, thank goodness, but the title was actually “Darla’s WMI Blog” or something similar, I don’t remember exactly, and it was hideous. I started it on Blogger, because it was free. I didn’t consider the possiblilty that I would one day have a stand-alone website or my own domain name, so I just used cakedarla because somebody had already claimed Cake Diva. I’m no diva anyway as those who know me in real life will tell you.

As I soon realized, the trouble with setting up a website on free hosting services like Blogger, WordPress, Tumblr, etc. is that unless you redirect it to your own domain, the URL will be www.whatever.blogspot.com (www.whatever.wordpress.com, www.whatever.tumblr.com, etc.) which is rather long, and if you’re trying to tell people about your website, having to use a subdomain just makes it harder to remember and more likely that people will have trouble finding it or mistype the URL. This is why I strongly recommend securing a custom domain through one of the many domain name registrars. Depending on where you’re blogging, setting up the redirect may involve several steps, but don’t be shy about asking for assistance if you need it. That’s what the tech support/help desk department is for.

Don’t be surprised if your first choice for a domain name is already taken and have several other options in mind as backups. Ideally, your website address should be as close to your business name as possible, but avoid using crazy spellings or hyphens. Remember, it needs to be simple and easy to remember so that people can readily find it. Try to get a .com URL, and if possible register other variations of your domain like .net and .us and have them all point to your website/blog. I myself haven’t done this because you must pay for each domain you register, and that’s just not in my budget right now. Also, I highly recommend opting for private registration, which will cost you an additional $10 or so per domain, but it protects your personal contact information.

To keep business-related communications separate from personal emails, as well as make things easier to manage all around, I advise people to set up a dedicated email address for their business. This will be the email address you use to register for an account on whichever free blogging platform(s) you choose, as well as any social media accounts you intend to use to promote your website. Many people use an email address tied to their domain registration, assuming that’s included (name@yourdomain.com), but I prefer Gmail because I’m a big user of Google services, and this way all my stuff is in one place.

Okay, so you have a catchy, easy-to-remember business name, a similar domain registered, and a dedicated email address. Now you need to build your website. But where? There’s no harm in signing up for accounts on multiple free blogging platforms at first to see which one you like best. You may even end up using more than one, as I do with my Tumblr, but your custom domain should point to your main website. While you’re in this experimentation and learning stage, don’t worry about setting up the redirect or even actively promoting your website. Once you decide where you’ll be blogging, are happy with the theme/layout of your website, and have a decent amount of content posted, then you can start driving traffic to it.

Blogger is is where many people get started. It’s part of Google, so if you already have a Google account or use Gmail then you have the benefit of a common login across all Google services, including YouTube if you post videos. This is a very user-friendly platform, and you are allowed to run affiliate ads if you plan to monetize your blog. You can customize the themes as well as write blog posts and static pages without having to know CSS or HTML, which is ideal for blogging beginners, and it’s easy to add pictures, videos, etc.

Tumblr is more of a micro-blogging platform. It’s similar to Twitter, but without the 140 character limit so you can publish more lengthy text posts. It is super easy to set up and use, plus there’s a great mobile app that enables you to blog on the go. It does have limitations, but I really like it for what it is and use it to post mini-updates, coupon codes and sales, non-cake related pictures, etc. I call my Tumblr “Filling” because it’s made up of content that doesn’t end up posted here–it’s what’s “between the layers” of Darla’s Cake Blog, so to speak.

WordPress is awesome, because it has more functionality and is just a better platform overall, but unless you go the self-hosted route affiliate links and other types of advertising are not allowed. If you plan to make money from your website or blog, then free WordPress isn’t a practical option. Another downside is that you’ll have to pay an annual fee (I think it’s $12) for a domain redirect. Blogger lets you redirect for free.

Of course, there are other free services, like Webs and Weebly, but I only have personal experience using the three mentioned above.

Once you’ve picked a platform and registered for an account, spend a few minutes completing your profile, including a brief bio, a description of your business/services, and contact information. You don’t have to share your life story, but it helps for people to know a little bit more about you and adds some credibility. Also allow yourself time to become familiar with whichever platform you choose. It might not be instantly obvious how to add photos or format your posts, so please try not to get frustrated. If you can’t figure something out, there’s usually a help article or forum post explaining how to do it. Google is a wonderful resource for finding stuff like that.

Next, you’ll want to select a template or theme. This is what gives your blog its look and determines the layout. Most themes and templates have customization options, and you may need to be play around with different configurations and settings to see what works best for you. Go for something that’s clean, professional, and matches your logo (if you have one). Usually you can upload a logo or header image to further customize your website.

Your blog posts can be about whatever you want, as long as they’re relevant to your business, like pictures of recent cake projects, tutorials, industry news, customer testimonials, upcoming special events, etc. The purpose of posting these updates is to help build an online presence for your business. This improves the likelihood that your business will show up in local online searches, which helps potential customers find you.

If you don’t like the idea of having to regularly post blog updates, most platforms allow you to build static pages, and you can set one of those as your home page. These are great for information that needs to be easily accessible and isn’t likely to change, like your business information, services, price list, operating hours, etc. For example, on classycakesandcookies.com I have the “About and Contact” page set as the landing/home page. Since that website in general isn’t complete and the associated blog for it isn’t updated on a regular basis (yet), there’s little point in having the URL go there.

I hope I’ve given you enough information to get started. If not, please let me know by asking any questions you may have in the comments section, and I will do my best to answer them. In my next Cake Blogging 101 post, I’ll cover how to set up a Facebook page, which is a great place to start promoting your services online if the thought of creating a website seems too overwhelming.

Mostly I’ve been working on a couple of new projects that I’m really excited about. The first is a revamped website for the Tennessee ICES chapter. I did that, with a little help from the previous webmaster who set up the domain, hosting, and moved content from the old site over for me. It’s still very much a work in progress, but I’m rather proud of it so far.

I’m also in the process of building a new website that will be more focused on cake decorating classes and finding an independent cake designer in the middle Tennessee and surrounding areas. But it’s slow going.

Don’t worry, this blog will still exist–hosting is paid up through 2017, so you’re stuck with me at least until then–and this will still be the “go to” spot to find out about my classes, but don’t be surprised to see more posts related to gluten-free baking and blogging in general. I’ve learned quite a lot over the past few years, and some of that information just might be of use to those of you who want to start your own website or blog. And yes, I still love my Chromebook, but no, I haven’t figured out a video editing solution yet. But I will soon, so that’s now fair game for blog post fodder.

These past few months I’ve also upped my participation in local cake-related activities by attending Nashville Cake Club meetings and as many ICES events as possible, like Days of Sharing and Sugar Play Days. These are a lot of fun, very educational, and great opportunities for networking, so they’re a valuable use of my time. Oh, and I’m going to the ICES convention in Lexington, KY this August! I’ve never been to one before, and since this year’s convention is so close, I can’t very well NOT go, so I’m really excited about it.

On a non-cake-related note, since the weather is more springlike I’m spending more time outside, with horses. They are my first love after all, and my Skipper has kept me busy with his insane amount of shedding. He turned 30 this past February, which is really old for a horse, and to celebrate I made carrot cupcakes and horse biscuits that look like, well, horse biscuits. Thanks to his arthritis and a bad hock, Skipper isn’t sound enough to ride any more, but a friend of mine has been letting me ride her mare every once in a while. It’s good therapy–er, I mean exercise.

As always, if you have any suggestions or comments I would love to hear from you, so don’t be shy! I regularly share cake decorating, baking, and gluten-free related things I discover on the internet via my Facebook page, and those updates automatically post to my Twitter stream, as do my Tumblr posts. I’m starting to post more on Google+ because apparently that’s an important thing to do if you want Google to like you, so you can follow me there.

I don’t know if the hinge will get looser over time, but as it is now, I have to pick the machine up and pry the two halves apart. I realize this is a very minor, and really inconsequential complaint, but I wanted to mention it in case anyone was considering getting a Samsung Chromebook. I’m not in the habit of carrying a computer around with me, so I typically leave mine open since it just camps out on my desk.

Another issue I encountered has to do with video editing, but this isn’t the Chromebook’s fault. In the past, I used a digital video camera to film my cake decorating tutorials. Then, I imported the videos to iMovie for editing and to add any voice over instructions. Once my videos were ready to be posted, I could then publish them directly to YouTube from iMovie. That was really easy, but importing the video to iMovie from the camera was time consuming.

I assumed that I could just capture video directly to YouTube using the built-in camera on my Chromebook, then do all I needed with the YouTube video editor. I really should have checked into this first, because there’s no way to record a voice over using the YouTube video editor. I know there are some online video editing services, like Stupeflix and WeVideo, and I’ll need to investigate those options for future vids. But I was anxious to get my gum paste orchid video done and posted, so I reverted back to what I know.

This meant I had to download the video clips I recorded directly on YouTube to my MacBook, and then import them into iMovie for editing. Since YouTube only lets you download 2 videos an hour (even when they’re your own videos), and I had 5 clips, this created a lengthy holdup in the process. Once I finally had the clips imported, edited, and voiced over, iMovie wouldn’t publish my finished video to YouTube because it was over 10 minutes long. This threw me for a loop. I know I’ve posted other videos that were longer than 10 minutes before, so I don’t know what’s up with that. I ended up exporting the finished video to my MacBook desktop and then manually uploading it to YouTube. What a roundabout way of doing things!

See, if I had an iPad, I could use it to capture video to iMovie, do any editing and voice overs, and then publish it directly to YouTube, thereby eliminating all these other steps. But I don’t have an iPad (yet), so in the meantime I’ll have to figure out a more efficient way. I would love to be able to do all this without reverting back to my MacBook, so if anybody has any advice, video editing app recommendations, or helpful tips, please let me know.

Aside from making a gum paste orchid video that took way longer than it should, I’ve been busy the past couple of weeks with other cake-related stuff. If you follow me on Tumblr, you’ll know that I learned to make gum paste orchids at the Nashville Cake Club meeting this month. Two Saturdays ago I participated in the annual Art Sparks event at the Franklin Rec Center to promote my cake decorating classes, and this past Saturday I had a nearly full Buttercream Basics class, so I think my efforts at Art Sparks paid off. Yesterday was the Tennessee ICES Spring Day of Sharing, which was a lot of fun, as usual. The demos were fascinating: we learned how to make glass bottles out of sugar, work with isomalt, and creative ways to embellish cake boards. I posted more pictures on Google+.

I’ll admit that I’m a little tired today, but it was all great fun.

I would have posted this recipe sooner, but as I mentioned last week, I had a new Chromebook to get used to, and while I’m not a total n00b when it comes to these things, I hardly consider myself tech-savvy. Plus, I’m old so it takes me a while to adjust to such changes.

Really, though, I’ve had a very smooth transition from my MacBook to this new device. The only thing I’m not able to do is update my iPod, since I don’t have access to iTunes on my Chromebook, and it’s one of those ancient clunky white iPods that you have to plug in to sync because it doesn’t access “the cloud.”

My MacBook isn’t cloud-enabled either because I never updated the operating system. But just syncing an iPod a few times a week is a lot less taxing than what I was asking it to do previously, so hopefully it will last a little while longer. Of course, that iPod is the same age, so I guess it could go any day now, too.

Anyway, I’m really pleased with how these cinnamon bun things came out. They are MUCH BETTER than the gluten-free cinnamon coffee cake I made a few weeks ago.

I opted to bake them in a mini-muffin pan because otherwise the recipe only yields 9 muffins, and if we really loved them that wouldn’t be enough. Also, I like working with bite-sized treats. It helps me with portion control, sometimes.

I did my typical substitutions of coconut oil instead of grapeseed, and I used maple syrup in lieu of the agave nectar. Otherwise, I pretty much kept to the recipe, and my mini-muffins actually look very similar to the picture on elanaspantry.com. This often isn’t the case, for whatever reason.

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Muffins

2013-04-16 13:04:52

My version of the gluten-free cinnamon bun muffins, adapted from Elana Amsterdam's recipe and baked as mini-muffins.

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For the topping

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon coconut oil

For the cinnamon mini-muffins

1 cup almond flour

2 tablespoons coconut flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup coconut oil

¼ cup maple syrup

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla

Instructions

Combine the topping ingredients, mix well, and set aside.

Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin/mini-muffin pan with paper baking cups.

Whisk the dry ingredients together until well combined. Mix the wet ingredients together, and then add to the dry. Stir until thoroughly mixed.

Spoon batter into baking cups, and add/drizzle cinnamon mixture over the tops. Bake 8-12 minutes, or until done, and cool on a wire rack.

Adapted from Elana's Pantry

Adapted from Elana's Pantry

Darla's Cake Blog http://www.cakedarla.com/

Wordpress Recipe Plugin by Recipe Card

But I expected that, since these aren’t made from bread dough. They remind me of those Hostess Low Fat Cinnamon Crumb Cakes I compulsively devoured frequently enjoyed while I was in college. This was back when I thought as long as it was “low fat” or “fat free” it was healthy. Ah, my misguided youth, but at least I know better now.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how much lighter these mini-muffins are than the coffee cake I made. It’s amazing what the addition of coconut flour and a few eggs can do. The only downside is that I can detect a bit of eggyness in the flavor. But then, I’m probably trying to taste it.

The only thing I’m not all that happy about is the topping. Perhaps when these muffins are made full size it stays on better, since there’s more top surface area.

But with these tiny things, the cinnamon mixture just ran off the edges, often down the baking cup, which would be fine except the lovely, crunchy cinnamon goodness then stuck to the edge of the paper and not the muffin. I hate to lose flavor like that.

This purchase falls somewhere between a splurge and a necessity because my dear, beloved MacBook is showing its age and is on borrowed time. Not only is the outer case totally beat up, but the trackpad has areas of unresponsiveness, and I have to hit the space bar really hard in order for it to register. The machine often makes these dreadful grinding noises, at which point I usually stop everything and run a full backup, and now there’s something wrong with the battery. I woke up this morning to zero charge, and there’s a little exclamation mark inside a triangle warning me that it needs service, whatever that means. Replacement, probably.

What I really want is, of course, an iPad. The full-size one, not a Mini. But that’s not going to happen, nor can I afford to get another MacBook. I don’t even think you can get straight-up MacBooks anymore, anyway. Now you have to go for the Air or the Pro. Both are well outside my price range at the moment.

Because I’m very much a Mac person, I rely on Google services to view documents like spreadsheets that are in a Windows format. A few weeks ago I was using Drive to create some class handouts, for the sake of easy sharing. That was the first time I ever really bothered to play with those apps, and I was impressed with all the templates and cool stuff you could do. Chrome is even my browser of choice, and I never knew.

Then I realized something. I do most of my photo editing online, using Photobucket or Pixlr. The Google Drive text editor does just fine for me, as seldom as I use a real text editor, and so I don’t particularly need to have a Mac. Not when everything that can do what I need plugs into Chrome and just, you know, seamlessly works. So I settled on the budget-friendly Chromebook.

All my YouTube cake decorating tutorials were filmed using a digital video camera and then edited in iMovie, and that is the one Mac application I was relying on, so I’ll need to figure out how I’m going to do the videos thing without it. But hey, this gives me another excuse for not uploading any new videos. A least for a little while longer.

In other news, the past few weeks have been busy. Doing the school parent volunteer thing has kept me occupied, which is always time well spent. Especially since while helping out with the lower school book fair I scored a copy of Bakerella’s Cake Pops Holidays and Cupcakes, Cookies, & Pie, Oh, My! (which wins the award for most commas in a cake book title). Those of you who follow me on Instagram already knew this.

Last week I was also getting my display samples ready and delivered to the Longview Art Sparks event. The good news is that they’re still in fairly decent shape, despite getting slightly rained on, so I can use them again this Saturday at the Franklin event. I had to fix the dress, and one of the daisies is missing a petal, but I’m not going to worry about it.

A week from this Sunday is the Tennessee ICES Day of Sharing. They have these events twice a year. I went last fall, where I got the peanut butter bonbons recipe, and last spring, when there was a 3D tiered Easter cake demonstration. So I’m really looking forward to this upcoming one. If you don’t live in Tennessee, you can still check out the main ICES website if you’re interested in learning more about the organization. Convention is going to be in Lexington this year, and I am SO going.

As for my blog, I know I need to get a recipe up soon. I still have the gluten-free monkey bread recipe I want to try, and I’ve been scooping up free Kindle ebooks with gluten-free recipes as I find them. I usually share those links on Twitter and via my blog page on Facebook if you’re interested. I sometimes share free cake decorating books too.

What about you guys? If you have any projects or crazy life goings-on you’d like to share please do so in the comments. I’m also becoming more active on Google+ so feel free to add me to your circles and contact me there if you so wish.

Anyway, out of the various pastries on offer, my kids wanted to try the monkey bread. There was only one portion left, but they agreed to share. It smelled and looked awesome, so it was no surprise that my kids loved it, and it has been mentioned several times since. Which only made me want to make something similar yesterday.

For some reason, I was convinced that Elana Amsterdam had a monkey bread recipe in her Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook. I must have dreamed that or something, because there’s no such recipe in that book, but I did find a recipe for cinnamon coffee cake.

As usual, I didn’t make the recipe exactly as written. I used coconut oil instead of grapeseed and maple syrup in lieu of agave nectar. I also omitted the currants because I didn’t have any, and the walnuts because I knew my kids wouldn’t want them.

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Coffee Cake

2013-04-16 13:23:55

Yields 12

Recipe for gluten-free coffee cake made with almond flour, topped with cinnamon and slivered almonds.

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For the cake

2 ½ almond flour

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ tablespoon cinnamon

¼ coconut oil

¼ maple syrup

2 large eggs

For the topping

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 tablespoons coconut oil

¼ maple syrup

½ slivered almonds

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 and grease an 8-inch square baking pan. I sprayed mine with nonstick cooking spray, but the original recipe tells you to use grapeseed oil and then dust with almond flour.

Combine the almond flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, mix together the oil, maple syrup, and eggs. Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix well.

Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly. I totally failed on the “spread evenly” part, which is why the cake is taller in some spots than others.

Sprinkle almond and cinnamon topping over the top, and bake 25-35 minutes until done (toothpick will come out clean). Let cake cool in pan for an hour before serving.

Notes

I’m not sure about the best way to store it, but I’m keeping my leftovers in the pan covered with plastic wrap.

Adapted from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook

Adapted from The Gluten-Free Almond Flour Cookbook

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Oh, and the original recipe doesn’t call for any cinnamon in the cake. You’re supposed to add 2 tablespoons of cinnamon to the topping, but that seemed like a lot, and I’d rather have a little less cinnamon than too much. I only used 1 tablespoon in the topping, but mixed in ½ tablespoon into the cake because originally I was going make mini muffins with this recipe and wanted to be sure cinnamon was evenly distributed. I changed my mind when I realized I was low on mini muffin cups

The bottom of my coffee cake sticks a little to the glass dish I baked it in, so perhaps I should have greased and floured it as directed. I’ll do that next time, most likely with coconut oil instead of grapeseed, assuming I don’t go the mini muffin route.

After searching for gluten-free monkey bread recipes online this morning, I found a recipe for Cinnamon Bun Muffins on elanaspantry.com. So I may need to make a batch of them next.

As for the monkey bread, I’m currently trying to decide which of these recipes I want to try: Grain Free Monkey Bread or Ultimate Sticky Monkey Bread. If you’re made either or both of them, please leave a comment and let me know how they turned out.

None of the usual grocery stores had it, either. So I looked for an alternative flour blend, just in case I couldn’t track down any sorghum flour. I found a similar recipe using using potato starch instead, which I had plenty of, so I tried that one first and called it GF1.

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup potato starch (NOT potato flour)
½ cup millet flour
1 teaspoon xanthan gum

At least, that’s how I made it, only I actually ended up doubling the recipe because I knew I needed at least 3 cups of the flour blend for the cake I wanted to bake.

The recipe for GF1 had several suggested substitutions, including using corn or tapioca starch in lieu of the potato starch. I suppose this is because potato starch can be a challenge to find, but check the Kosher section of your grocery store because sometimes it’s on display there. Another recommended substitution was using almond flour instead of millet. This would up the protein factor, but almond flour tends to be coarser.

A day or so later I managed to get a bag of sorghum flour at Whole Foods, so I mixed up the other flour blend recipe, doubling it, and called it GF2. It’s darker anyway, so I don’t think it would be hard to tell them apart.

1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup sorghum flour
1 cup tapioca starch
½ teaspoon xanthan gum

You can watch a video demonstrating this flour blend recipe here: How to Make Gluten Free Flour Blend. In the recipe notes on that same webpage, there’s another flour blend that has a higher protein content, as well as the suggestion to
replace ½ cup of the tapioca starch with ½ cup cornstarch, to “alter for taste.”

Oh, and if you decide to try this flour blend, pay attention to the xanthan gum
recommendations:

• add ½ teaspoon xanthan gum for cakes, cupcakes and cookies
• add1 teaspoon xanthan gum for Breads and rolls
• add 1 ½ teaspoon xanthan gum for pizza and pie crust.

Since I was making a cake, I went with ½ teaspoon.

I wanted to know how these flour blends would do when used in a conventional cake recipe in lieu of regular all-purpose flour, so I made the Wilton Butter Cake recipe with them.

I baked an 8″ round cake layer and some cupcakes with each flour blend, and I was disappointed.

Both cake layers and the cupcakes started shrinking as soon as they came out of the oven. The GF1 (top) cake layer and all the cupcakes sank in the middle. The GF2 (bottom) cake layer didn’t sink as much, but it suffered more overall shrinkage.

Obviously, adjustments need to be made to avoid a shrinking, sinking, heavy, and dense cake. I just don’t know what. This is the challenge–it’s very difficult to just replace regular flour with a gluten-free blend in a conventional recipe and get reliable results.

From now on, I’m going to stick with recipes listing the ingredients by weight, not volume. At least when I’m subbing out the flour and trying to make it gluten free.

It’s hard enough to be accurate when using regular all-purpose or cake flour, but with these gluten-free blends, some of the flours are heavier than others, so I’m not really sure if I’m using the correct amounts.

As far as taste, though, both cakes were fine. I thought the GF1 cake was way too sweet, and it formed a hard, crunchy top crust so I reduced the sugar in the recipe when I made it using GF2, and it was still plenty sweet but without the thick top crust. I think the general consensus in my house is the GF1 cake tasted better and was more visually appealing compared to the darker GF2 cake.

The texture and mouthfeel weren’t too bad, either. Despite its density, I think I prefer GF2 on this front, though. GF1 has more xanthan gum, and the cake tends to do that thing where the crumb congeals together in your mouth as you chew, and gets a tad slimy just before you swallow it. Or maybe that’s just me.

Further to my experiments, I had enough of these flour blends left over to get a batch of buttermilk biscuits out of each, and for now I’ll stick with Pamela’s Gluten-Free Baking and Pancake Mix for my biscuit needs. I think it makes better biscuits than either of these flour blends.

I used a cutter to make biscuits with GF2, and they hardly rose at all during baking, making them look like hockey pucks.

Plus, they were more crumbly than flaky, with a muffin-like texture, and got stale very quickly. Lots of strawberry jam was their only hope!

I baked the GF1 biscuits in a muffin tin (drop-biscuit style), and they turned out looking like dinner rolls, but at least they had some height to them.

The GF2 biscuits suffered from the same mouthfeel issue as the cake made with this flour blend, but other than that they tasted fine. Sadly, they also went really stale by the next day.

If you have any suggestions or ideas about how to adjust the butter cake recipe cited (or one like it) to get better results using a gluten-free flour blend instead of regular flour, then please leave a comment and let me know. Or, if you have a reliable gluten-free cake recipe, please share!